[Crusade] Ocean City War Games | Proposition

... PLANETARY DESIGNATION α-class Oceanic subtype; TITHE GRADE Decima Particular; AESTIMARE C-103; POPULATION 0.572 bn; OBSERVATIONS exports nutri-kelp and deep sea bastard eels, ++ former ++ base of 29 Tempestus Regiment, astronavigational hazard Firestorm Nebula ... 

... of course, Janneria Prime more properly refers to the largest continent rather than the entire planet - the prime landmass, you see - but given that it's the seat of every major habitation, it's synonymous, thus eponymous ...

... the Accord, signed fifteen tau'cyr ago, saw the Lady Governor Astor de Gomme maintain hereditary preeminence as the gue'vesa signatory, ensured the survival of the Stannary Conclave as her advisory body, and crucially left system defence in the hands of gue'vesa operatives as well. Much of the surveillance infrastructure is likewise Imperial gue'la in origin: as systems fail and users age out, a gradual migration is ongoing. On the ground, however, Fire Caste personnel constitute the vast majority of the armed forces ...

... in light of the ongoing strife deleterious to the Greater Good, Da'Ieldi invites delegations from Vior'los and Kel'shan to join them in field weapon testing, bonding exercise, and demonstration of political acumen. Let unity be found through conflict.

++ Citadel de Gomme ++ Seat of gue'vesa government and Water caste consulate; operational headquarters for Da'Ieldi Fire caste. Fortified position facing seaward, control of secondary overland transit routes.

++ Port Estoc ++ Primary oceanic transport hub; chiefly agricultural fleet with minor capacity for combat and scientific operations. Oldest settlement on Janneria. Access, via commercial ferry fleet, to southern archipelago.

++ Corona Heights ++ Mixed t'au and gue'vesa population, settlement exists around major land transit intersection and radiates along those routes. Largest population centre, tertiary industry concentration.

++ Rogue Borough ++ Majority gue'vesa/gue'la population, concentrated resistance to Tau'va. Decaying Imperial gue'la architecture, centred around large medical facility, cf. Derian Cross.

++ O'Lai'ra Mills ++ Majority t'au population, Earth caste majority, processing and manufacturing of raw materials extracted by traditional gue'vesa labour, cf. Stannary Convocation. Imperial gue'la policy treated Janneria as export hub: building self sufficiency through secondary industry is a priority for the joint administration. New build, t'au architecture.

++ Defyna Highlands ++ Scattered mining communities and religious hermitages; disused Imperial gue'la carceral facility near largest conurbation, cf. Plume Town; traditional seat of Stannary Convocation mining guild, cf. Plume Town.

++ Additional glyphs denote possible locations of subterranean ves'ron architecture, triangulated from engagement data cf. Shas'O Aloh'ka. ++

What do you do when you have three Tau players, one Necron player, a copy of Pariah Nexus and no Astartes in sight?

This. This is what you do.

My previous engagement with Dr. Shiny's Da'Ieldi T'au took place at the offices of Character Creation CIC, which is also where at least some of the magic happens for Ocean City Tabletop (a podcast in which I and two other ageing reprobates yap about tabletop games and the bizarre density of their players to be found on our home turf). After my successful evacuation from that fabled realm, I was nattering with my co-hosts and discovered that both of them are fans of the ungulate, the skimmer, and the battlesuit as well.

This set me to thinking. I realised that I had, on my own shelf of shame, a campaign supplement featuring three competing ideologies in a Necron-themed environment. Opportunity was knocking. Here's my proposal, as shared with the chaps that very day:

Each Tau force active on the planet corresponds to one of the "alliances" in the Pariah Nexus campaign structure. Seekers, who are trying to accumulate an unnatural resource; Protectors, who are trying to stash the unnatural resource away from harm; Interlopers, who are trying to do their own inscrutable thing that incidentally involves the unnatural resource. In this case, each of those is an agenda in the simulation of a three-way conflict for strategic and tactical education (and political gamesmanship).

Three rounds of two small games, 500-1000 points. In each round, two Tau armies fight in a "training exercise" (political connotations), while the third takes on the Necrons in an attempt to find the entrance to their tomb complex.

Once everyone has a clue what they're doing, a combined force of Tau breaches the Necron tomb and we play a big sexy Onslaught game. 3 x 1000 point Tau armies [or, in practice, 3000 points divided up three ways] against 1 x 3000 point Necron army, scenario to be determined based on which "alliance" (i.e. which strategic tendency) has taken the lead in the suddenly serious actual war.

If the proposition is accepted, we'll be hearing more about the participants and their forces in the future.